Hot Wheels Car Culture Air-Cooled has dropped at Target…

Here is a surprise. Target has been the place for early Car Culture in 2017, and that goes for the latest batch, Air Cooled.

A few of you reported finding the batch earlier this week, and to my surprise this morning, my Target came through as well. The batch is loaded. Then again, any batch this VW heavy will be popular. Add a Porsche and the coolest Hot Wheels Fiat ever (and one that customizers will have a field day on, just look at the wheels) and you have a must-have batch.

I’ve got to get these home for a little photo and video session, but in the meantime get to Target. They are hitting…

There's no doubt the Car Culture line has been among the strongest premium lines HW has done lately, but this might be the first batch (for me) where EVERY SINGLE MODEL is an absolute killer. BlackWind above makes good points about some of the cons of the batch, but all things considered, this is a knock-out of a batch.

I agree about the lack of a 911…although when I thought about it, I realized that it would have to be a pre-1998 911 to be air-cooled, which leaves the 964 and 993 generations as possibilities, but those both already made appearances in Track Day and Euro-Style, respectively. Of course, Mattel does decide these lineups at the outset, so they could have re-worked things to better suit the individual batches, but oh well…

All of this brings us to the obvious conclusion that Hot Wheels needs to create a casting for the original 1964-1969 911 😉

These cons make zero sense:1. Hot Wheels is very, very good at creating custom Volkswagens. From vans to baja buggies to drag cars, to show cars and more. This fastback VW casting is sorely underrepresented in die cast and this Hot Wheels version even introduces the recent new wheels and a “weathered/rusty” paint scheme and fine detailed lettering – This is a FANTASTIC new model. The new custom beetle, and the rare Brazilian VW are great as well. And the new Fiat is getting rave reviews – along with the very nice ONE Porsche that is much more classic than yet another 911 derivative. This is what Hot Wheels DOES, create little pieces of ARTWORK, particularly in the adult collector series like this one. Porsches simply don't lend themselves to this level of customization in the real world or in die casts.2. Your obvious confusion on what Hot Wheels does continues. Porsche 911s have been done to death and this series isn't about DOCUMENTING the HISTORY of air-cooled cars. It's a grouping of cool Hot Wheels customs. If a historical grouping was desired, it would be done at a low detail level by Matchbox (and probably already has been) or at super detail by Greenlight, Auto World, Tomica or others.3. Again you miss the point ENTIRELY. Hot Wheels has ARTISTS in their employ. From Tom Daniels to Jun Imai and in-between, these designers create entirely NEW die cast PIECES OF ART for collectors to enjoy. Again, if you want stock vehicles, buy Greenlight, Auto World, Johnny Lightning, Tomica – plenty of choices from those manufacturers. To buy Hot Wheels to collect stock vehicles makes ZERO sense.